We’re All Changing: ‘I want’ to ‘they need’

There are two kingdoms: the claustrophobic kingdom of self and the expansively glorious Kingdom of God. One is a kingdom riddled with small-minded selfishness and the other is one saturated with the transforming love and grace of Jesus. The mind-sets of ‘self’ and ‘others’ collide.

As believers we are fundamentally subjects of only one Kingdom but daily we stray and switch feet between camps as we wrestle and war with the persistent nagging to live according to our own desires and wants. Like when we get irritated in busy traffic because the laws of our own selfish kingdoms are broken (all these drivers are in MY way). I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want. I want. I want. I want.

But the Kingdom of heaven is a transforming kingdom. A kingdom full of the transforming love and grace of a Saviour who will not relent or rest until every microbe of sin is delivered from every cell of every heart of every one of His children. His grace is teaching us. His grace keeps us. It transforms our ‘I want’ into His ‘they need’. They need. They need. They need. They need. They need. They need. They need.

Be in awe of this grace. Be grateful for this grace. Be confident in this grace.  If you see and feel your need of it…it is changing you.

Just As You Are

Hello Blogg (ers)!

I have been having a rest from blogging over the last year – it has been a good break.

One of the main themes of all my prayers is the on-going ask that Paul had that the Father would grant a Spirit of wisdom and revelation to the NT (Ephesians 1:17) church that they might know Jesus better.

This has become my theme every time I open the word or pray because seeing Jesus as He is really is the answer to everything: greater, deeper love for people, preference of His infinitely valuable presence over sin, increased humility/decreasing pride…the list could go on.

I wrote the song (below) after I saw something stunning in Isa.53:2 where the prophet Isaiah describes Jesus:

“…like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him.”

This was once the case for all of us – like the Roman soldiers who crucified Him or unbelievers today who don’t see the beauty of Christ – it’s as though there was nothing about Him that we would be attracted to Him. How incredibly wrong!

It was the reality that this is still true for me as a believer today that brought this song out. Even though I ‘know’ that Jesus is infinitely valuable and my most beautiful Treasure, daily my soul needs reminding. Despite being made alive in my heart by God to believe, I still barely see His beauty. Jesus is more beautiful and desirable than I could ever know so my only response  has to be the Ephesians 1:17 prayer- Lord, please help me to know You more, that I might see You as infinitely majestic and beautful. Just As You Are….

Be blessed,

Nick

Adopted! Romans 8:14-16

The Holy Spirit of adoption compared with the spirit of slavery. It’s like the difference between sitting on your Dad’s knee eating a Werthers Original compared to being trapped hopelessly in a child slavery camp: Loved unconditionally, understood, empowered, protected, believed-in, rescued, highly esteemed and cherished, pleasing. Compared to being over-worked, under-fed, beaten, abused, exposed, taken-advantage-of, unloved, forgotten. That’s why we cry “Abba!”

RNX – Becoming What We Are

My, my, my…what a very cool church we have here in Bradford, UK. (www.alm.org.uk). We are in the middle of celebrating 10 years of Rock Nations, a youth conference with plenty of differences.

When I was 15 in 1995, we had summer camps in vacated schools and for 2 or 3 days where we used to have meetings, tuck shops, day trips out where we used to get euphoric about all being out together in a new city (Bournemouth), and other Christian camp things. They were good days and God was doing precious things in us all then.

And God is doing something very awesome today as well: 1700 young people and leaders from all around the world are gathering in BD3 to encounter the living God, Jesus Christ. And it’s more than encountering Him for some emotional moments…there is a marking that is happening of young people’s hearts that will lead them to change cultures for Christ – hearts that have been sealed (Eph.1:13) by the Holy Spirit and that are being unleashed with insatiable zeal to see Him known, justice reign and freedom breakout. Sounds like a smaller band of men once upon a time to me.

And the fact is, RNX is about all of us continuing to become what we already are. We are sanctified and yet are being sanctified. We are justified yet are being justified and we are saved and yet we are being saved. That’s why Paul tells us in Colossians to ‘put on the new self’ which is ‘being renewed’. We’ve got it on already (because of the twinkling-of -an-eye-moment when we were reborn) but we’re still being renewed. We have the mind of Christ and yet our minds are being transformed in a daily way.

So I see RNX as a 10-year celebration of this conference but also as a celebration of His life in ours, that we are all becoming what we already are in Christ, whether we are 15 or 30 or 50, or any age. The Nations truly are being rocked!

“There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.” – Phil.1:6 MSG

Let’s Remember Them

 
Living as a Christian in 21st Century England is easy. It might not always feel easy, but it really is. There are no laws prohibiting Bible reading or praying to Jesus or talking about Him in public places. There aren’t any government-sent army soldiers knocking on the door of your life-group to demand you stop worshipping Yeshua or pulling you off to a prison cell when you don’t.

  These realities are so far from our experience as Christians in the UK that we forget they are happening every day for a sizeable chunk of our Christian family around the earth. We forget. We forget what it really costs some to stand for the gospel and to bear the Name.

 

 

http://www.csw.org.uk/idop.htm

 Peter writes of trials that come to believers like this: “These have come so that your faith…may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor…” (1 Pet. 1:7)

In the absence of ‘life or death’ or ‘freedom or prison’ realities for us here, we should still remember that our own trials are still ‘proving’ our faith in our lives. Part of the high, high privilege of having a soft heart is the process of the maturing of our faith in Christ…a faith growing in wisdom. 
Whatever trial you’re in now consider it’s effect on your faith as one of proving and maturing. Trials mature us. Trials produce wiser faith….which is worth far more than gold, (1 Pet. 1).
 
Come on, let’s pray! Father, we pray now for every brother and sister around the globe caught in persecution. We pray you’d bless them. Keep them, protect and deliver them, and may their faith be shown to be genuine. Please strenghten their faith to the praise of Your Name – may your Name be known.
And for the trials in our lives, here in the Western world. Help us to respond well. Would you give us a wiser faith as a result, and that You’d be glorified – that is, known as the glorious One that You are. We pray too for subtle, governmental laws that persecute followers of Christ in the UK – in the midst of these cause Your gospel to shine. 
 
Amen 
 

 

Love and War

It is true to say that the right book in the right hand at the right time can literally save a life. And the power of someone’s testimony in the right hand at the right time is spectacularly powerful, let alone a husband and wife’s.

In “Love and War” John and Stasi Eldredge have ‘bared all’ to give any engaged or married couple an absolute must of a gift when it comes to preparing for and living in happy, glad-hearted marriage. Of course, it is also a must read for single Christian people to prepare their thinking in advance of finding the romance of love and the heart-ache of the relational war that will go hand-in-hand with ‘boy meets girl’.

Love and War combines profound insight, honest and refreshing directness as well as disarming humour that opens up the readers’ heart to better understand, and more deeply love, the one to whom they are betrothed. It is a cool, trendy, relevant exploration of this mysterious thing we call marriage and should be read prayerfully as it will require you to change, big time. Highlights include the chapter on sex, the perfect storm, the greatest gift you can give and a cracking sub-section on opposites do attract.

Thanks to the Eldredge’s for their testimony and not giving up that others might also get to 25years, and way beyond, as happily married Christian men and women.

Get Low

We all know that God likes it when we’re humble and He’s not very happy when we’re proud and arrogant. How is it then that we often struggle to take the last spot in the queue or the smallest bit of pizza from the Domino’s box? Why do we insist on giving ourselves the best shot instead of making room for God to do something far more glorious?

Living in Christian community can be very challenging. Getting on with people can be very challenging. Not taking offense is an on-going challenge. But the call from God is to ‘go low’.

I visited IHOP (see http://www.ihop.org) a couple of years ago and this is where I heard the phrase ‘getting low’. It means that whenever we are tempted to climb higher on the back of our own sense of ‘justice’ or ‘rightness’ or whatever it is that we think is the ‘way’, we need to forget that and place our own agendas down. Jesus said to consider the needs of each other….to prefer others to yourselves. And James talks about bearing with one another in gentleness (James 3: 17-18 MSG) as being a true sign of holiness and wisdom.

So, I am reminded again to ‘get low’, get on the floor, eat carpet, let go of offense and hurts, prefer others, love others, look to the interests of others…and when I see situations on the horizon to ‘get high’ for myself to instead resist and get down low.

Father, I ask you today for a greater anointing of humility on my life and for all who read this.

Amen

Go And Make 2010 Happen

Jeremiah 33:3 –  ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’

One of the things I regularly think about is the future. It might be a future week, a future year or even a future decade. It might be that I’m thinking about a significant life event, like my 30th birthday in February. I spend a lot of my time, I’m realising, thinking about the future.

If you’re a futurist like me, Strengths Finders (http://www.strengthsfinder.com/113647/Homepage.aspx) suggests:

“Partner with someone…who can remind you that you do not discover the future, you create it with the actions you take today.”

“Surround yourself with people who are eager to put your vision into motion. They will feel exhilarated by your Futuristic talents, and you can harness their energy to propel the vision toward reality.”

Normally I dislike “self help concepts” or “lead the best life yet” type of teachings, because they are often void of Scriptural foundations or Biblical principles. For instance, Jesus did come to give us abundant life, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a certain salary per year, 3 holidays and a caravan. Jesus was mainly referring to the abundance of knowing freedom from condemnation…the abundance of a life being a child of God. Having said that, there  are elements of helping ourselves in our co-working with God ( 1 Cor. 3: 5-9) that have to form part of our devotion – i.e. budgetting wisely, being careful to avoid laziness or slovenly habits that don’t encourage others.

So for us in 2010: I pray that instead of just temporary NY resolutions that fade that we have some new thoughts about how we can improve ourselves this year or some new ventures that will mould our presents into the futures we dream about. Some things are outside of our control but I know I want to get to grips with some things this year that I have God-given control over.

Ask God to help you find your strengths.  Think about them, invest in them, build around them and determine this New Year, with the Lord, to make your future. The God who knows everything, and specifically everything about you, invites you to pray Jeremiah 33:3 that He might help you make your future.


Ginger beards and shell-suits

DSC_9249

 

 

The other day I was running along a canal near to where I live in Bradford and I was praying as I started picking up speed.

 

 

As I was running this particular day, a young chap with a bright ginger beard, a caring face and a full-length shell-suit caught my heightened attention as I noticed him stroll past me as I’d stopped to stretch. My half-hearted attempt to respond to what the Holy Spirit was saying was to ask him for the time, which he didn’t have.

 

“So you’ve just asked him for something you don’t need instead of giving him what you do have and that he desperately needs?”. That was my canal-side conviction.

 

Off I went a few minutes later thinking I might see him again, and I did, coming back towards me. This time I bailed out again – silly thoughts overtaking the Holy Spirit  in me –  ‘what should I say?’ –  knowing full-well that I’d know right in the minute. 

 

I carried on running away from this chap who I’d just passed again. I didn’t get much past a minute down the canal and I had to turn back around. If you want it to, the love of Christ will compel you. Up ahead I saw the guy who I was just about to find out was called Adam. Jesus is awesome and He’s with you – that’s all he needed to hear.

 

The smile that crept across my face after we’d finished talking told me, “that’s it!!”. 

 

When we engage with what God is saying at any given moment we cast ripples across eternity. 

 

I kicked a few stones in the canal and praised God.

 

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No-one Like You God

In Exodus 15:11 the phenomenal prophet, Moses, says,

“”Who among the gods is like you, O LORD ? 

       Who is like you— 
       majestic in holiness, 
       awesome in glory, working wonders?”

 

Today, often in the shadow of Islamic mosques, Jehovah’s Witness call-outs and the world’s obsession with political correctness, the prophetic accuracy of Moses’ song above seems to be a distant Old Testament psalm, and Easter is just another calendar date,

But in reality this truth remains today, Easter 2009, in exactly the same way as it did 4,000 years ago…that there really is no-one, not even close, like the God of the Bible – Jesus Christ.

Who can compare to Jesus Christ? Who is like our Abba of Isa.53 who would desire that His Son be crushed (Isa.53:10), despite the searing pain to the Godhead. Who, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross for the pleasure of you and me? (Heb.12:2)

The Easter truth today is that, despite world-wide cultural norms, spiritual strong-holds, fears and Western apathy, Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father of all creation. Even if you struggle to accept Him, even if you struggle to see and savour Him…there is still No-one like the Lord…majestic in His splendour, all-powerful in heaven and earth.

Why not make your prayer today….Jesus, if you are really real, and if you are really the only way to know this peace I’m after,I’ve tried everything else, then please show me yourself now….amen.

 

I pray that for you guys with all my heart.

 

Happy Easter:)

 

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